Some friends think my wife and I are foolish enough to return to Malaysia after having emigrated to Australia for six years.

“Why do you want to return to a rotten country that is getting even more rotten by the day?” We get this sort of question unceasingly in the 13 years since we have been back from Australia.

At the water cooler in the office a colleague asked me: “Why did you really want to come back?”

“This is my country, why shouldn’t I come home? I would rather die here than anywhere else.”

“You really believe that,” he asked in disbelief and proceeded to remind me the hopelessness of the situation that Malaysia is in now.

Remember it was only recently that a Malay mob took a freshly decapitated cow’ head and spat and stomped on it to display their disgust at the Selangor government’s decision to re-locate a 150-year-old Hindu temple to near their suburb.

Now this mob or their fellow provocateurs are stridently reminding non-Malays to behave as this is their land – Tanah Melayu.

“Now you still believe this is your motherland?” my friend eyeballed me.

“You think you are a bumiputra like them ah?”

“Of course, I am a bumiputra,” I retorted which got him stumped momentarily.

“I was born on the same bumi -Tanah Melayu- like anybody else. Where do you think I was born? Underground or what? So that makes me a bumiputra except that I am not entitled to the 30 percent and APs,” I said more out of exasperation than anything else.

Yes, Malaysia is indeed a rotten country. And getting more rotten by the day. Many are trying to get out before it’s too late. I met an old friend and he told me he is emigrating to Australia soon. He is earning a five figure monthly salary as a senior vice president of a foreign company. Yet he is packing up. What will he do there? He is thinking of several possibilities. Maybe open a deli or a snack bar. No maids, no drivers, no secretaries, no perks. I suppose that’s better than staying back in a rotten country.

I was in Sabah recently and I met three couples who have decided to make the Land Below the Wind their second home. The American couple just loves the great outdoors Sabah is famous for. I don’t know whether they are rich but they looked well heeled and comfortable enough to afford a good lifestyle.

The second couple is from Holland – Land Below the Sea. Likewise they like the outdoors. But the main reason they are on the Malaysia My Second Home visa is that cost of living back home is five times more than in Sabah, according to them. In Sabah, they can even afford a maid, which unheard of back in the Netherlands.

The third couple is from England and much younger than the other two. The simply fell in love with the mystique of Borneo and left their jobs and headed for Sabah. However, as they were too young to retire, so they don’t qualify for pension. Neither could they afford to pay for the deposit for the second home visa. So they decided just to come on a social visit and try to stay on as long as possible.

Yes, there are others like me who would like to return and remain. Chin Peng too wants to return to Malaysia to live out his remaining days in what he considers his homeland. He was born in Sitiawan in Perak and later become the general secretary of the clandestine Communist Party of Malaya. Although his party had signed a peace treaty 20 years ago with the Malaysian government and had agreed to lay down arms, he is not allowed to return to Malaysia.

Yes, Malaysia may be a rotten country but packing up and leave doesn’t make it any less rotten. Or any better. On the contrary, it will only give the racists, the corrupt and their cronies more opportunities to make this country an even more rotten one. Don’t get out, don’t rid of ourselves, get rid of these rotten rascals. Then perhaps Malaysia may be less of a rotten country. (By BOB TEOH/MySinchew)